420 World and Ladies World Championships - A thrilling final day

The 2013 420 World and Ladies World Championships in Valencia, Spain ended today with a thrilling final day of racing.

Spain's Xavier Antich/Pedro Terrones winning the 420 World Championship title and Great Britain's Annabel Cattermole/Bryony Bennett-Lloyd sealing victory in the 420 Ladies World Championship in Valencia, Spain.

The day was intense and exciting as teams' patience and nerves were tested waiting for the breeze to fill in. Postponed ashore racing eventually got underway at 1500 hours, with the building breeze reaching around 12 knots.

420 Open
The surprise of the day was undoubtedly the victory in the 420 Open fleet by Xavier Antich/Pedro Terrones, who managed to close the gap separating them from the first placed team going into the day and recent ISAF Youth World Champions Tiago Britto/Kneipp Andrei from Brazil.

The Spanish pair literally snatched victory from Brito/Kneipp who had led the series until race 11, by sailing the race of their lives, with the Brazilians back in 28th.

Britto/Kneipp have excelled here in Valencia, heading up the 420 Open fleet after each day’s racing, and seemed certain to seal gold. But the World Championship crown slipped away from them after two days of mixed results gave them no margin to put another foot wrong in today’s two races. And that they did, scoring a 12, 28, compared to the 15,5 scoreline of the Spanish.

Still glory days though, with Britto/Kneipp securing the silver medal and the John Merricks Trophy as the best under-18 team.

A delighted Antich said, 'We are very proud to be champions of the world because we have spent many years working to get it. The consistency has helped us to be ahead always.'

'It was a pretty tough race but we worked all the way and now we get the result,' added Terrones.

Sebastien Simon/Pierre Rhimbault were also in the battle for gold, but a bit of a shocker for the pair gave them their worst two races of the series to finish in third and be awarded bronze medals.

Italy’s Matteo Pilati/Michele Cecchin won the William Sanchez Trophy for the best under-16 crew after their eighth overall on the leaderboard.

The Huck Scott Memorial Trophy, awarded to the youngest crew at the 420 Worlds, was presented to the Austrian team of George Steinhaler/Patrick Christa.

Having had to wait for the breeze to fill in, the time limit cut-off meant it was not possible to hold the final race 12 for the silver and bronze fleets. At the Closing Ceremony, the top finishers in each fleet, Hippolite Macheti/Sidoine Dantes (FRA) and Taylor Balogh/Samuel Lee (NZL) respectively, were presented with trophies.

420 Ladies
Great Britain’s Annabel Cattermole/Bryony Bennett-Lloyd exceeded their expectations and secured gold. It was only after the qualifying stage of the Championship that the pair became realistic contenders, as their consistent scoreline stood out, with only two finishes outside the top 10.

'It feels incredible, I don’t think it has quite sunk in yet but I think it will get there eventually it just doesn’t feel quite real that we have actually won and are World Champions,' expressed Cattermole.

'Going into the final race of the regatta we knew we needed a top ten to win and a top 20 to finish on the podium, so we entered the race like we have done all the other races, try to sail like we have been doing and do what we have been doing. We got a clear start which was good and had a good run up the first beat with lots of clean air with options to do what we wanted and to sail as quick as we wanted,' explained Cattermole.

There is no break for Bennett-Lloyd who will be charging over to La Rochelle, France to sail a 470 for the first time, as stand-in crew for Anna Burnet at the 470 World Championships, which gets underway on 5th August.

The British pair also won the John Merricks Trophy for the best under-18 crew.

Singapore’s Kimberly Lim/Savannah Siew secured the silver medal and rounded out their Championship bid in style by winning the final race. A great outcome for this pair, who finished in fourth at last year’s Ladies Worlds.

Bronze goes to Italy’s Sara Scotto di Vettimo/Vittoria Barbiero, who sailed a very consistent series with five top three results.

The William Sanchez Trophy for the best under-16 crew was presented to Spain's Manuela Huidobro/Lucia Bustrillo. Silvia Mas/Nuria Miró, Spain’s reigning National 420 Champions, won the 420 Ladies silver fleet.